Programme Documents

For the 2016/17 construction season RAP3 launched piloting of a new approach for the performance of Specific Road Maintenance which covers spot improvements to deal with critical access bottlenecks on the DRCN. Piloting was performed in Achham, Dailekh, Doti and Jumla with an annual budget per District of NRs 6 million under RAP3 direct funding. This report presents feedback on this first year of piloting in order to inform the intended further pilotingthrough a 2nd year (2017/18 i.e. RAP3 IY4) and is based largely on post-work questionnaires combining the views of RAP3 DTA, DCCs and the SMGs.

CONNECT’s primary focus is to deliver economic growth resulting in improved livelihoods over the long term. Our partnerships, with clearly defined goals and exit strategies developed and agreed with MSME partners prior to investment, are the catalysts for change.

The Sanighat-Phukot-Syuna-Sipkhana District Road (SPSSDR, 17.650 Km), Kalikot lies in the higher Himalayan Zone of Province 6 of Nepal. The road has been constructed adopting labour based environmentally friendly and participatory (LEP) approach. The road is earthen surface and is designed and constructed following Nepal Rural Road Standard 1998 (1st revision in 2012). All constructed structures are flexible, and no permanent bridges and culverts are built. The main objectives of the resilience audit are to examine the adequacy of the current new-built civil engineering structures particularly water management structures, bio-engineering techniques, and propose opportunities for missing structures, assess the maintenance approach and provide plan of action including intervention measures to improve climate resilience of the road infrastructure as far as possible.

The 2016 DFID Annual Review recommended that IMC shift its Implementation Year to align with the GON fiscal year, normally 16th July to 15th July the following year. It was agreed that the best way to do this would be to extend IY3 by 5 months to the end of June using results derived from the new LogFrame. This suggests that the next Annual Review should start by May 2017, which is the end of the working season, and be completed by July to allow its recommendations feed into the design of IY4.

As a results-based programme, RAP3 invoices against achievement of milestones and the targets set out in the LogFrame, which was endorsed by the Steering Committee on 29th January 2015. Achievement of the key results of the LogFrame is measured in May each year when DFID conducts its Annual Review.

Honourable Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Mr Hit Raj Pande launched the book “Statistics of Local Road Network (SLRN) 2016” on 10 February 2017 prepared with the technical and financial assistance of Rural Access Programme Phase 3 in Kathmandu. The statistical book consists of LRN inventory data documented in District Transport Master Plan and GIS based district maps of 75 districts. This also includes the list of Local Road Bridges and their status.

IMC Worldwide Ltd (IMC) is committed to the Modern Slavery Act of 2015. We have always had a zero tolerance for corruption, bribery, forced work, and other unethical actions. We will continue to improve our processes and procedures to continuously combat such acts.

New road construction projects have been commenced in 4 core districts – Humla, Mugu, Bajura and Kalikot, prioritised as per DoLIDAR’s DTMP procedures. For these new construction roads huge quantities of gabion boxes are required. As planned, procurement of gabion boxes and its delivery were performed in Yr-I and Yr-II. However, during February 2016 on a DC field visit note (Refer Annex1: FIELD VISIT REPORTs) to Kalikot (03rd - 15th January 2016) and later to Bajura (12th -19th February 2016), some quality issues had been raised regarding gabion boxes supplied by Hulas Wire Industries Ltd. The quality issues were: mechanical connections of end panels to main body and size of diaphragms and end panels of the gabion boxes.

CONNECT, RAP3’s Business Development initiative, kicked off with a meeting in Doti on 6th June, 2016. Chaired by the LDO of Doti, Mr. Basudev Regmi, the meeting was introduced to the idea of a business incubation centre called the Idea Studio. Part of the Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM), it provides a platform for innovators and experts from academia, the private, technical and development sectors, to transform innovative ideas into successful businesses. From more than 600 ideas in the fields of agriculture, education, information technology and tourism, a total of 35 of the most creative business ideas were selected for mentorship at the incubation centre. Rupesh Krishna Shrestha, Associate Professor from Kathmandu University and the Departmental Director of Idea Studio, explained how Idea Studio invites concepts and ideas to the following address: PO Box 376 Bakhundol, Lalitpur, website: www.ideastudio.org.np phone number: 01-5520374 or contact RAP3 Office in Doti, phone number: 094420233, email: indra.adhikari@rapnepal.com

As part of the RAP district communication strategy, the weekly RAP 3 sponsored Radio Show is an important component. Titled as Road to Development, this program is driven entirely by local people and development issues that receive importance at the local level. Using a toll free number provided, local people are encouraged to express their thoughts and experiences on what's working and what's not working with the RAP program as well as other broader development issues.

This document presents a proposal for the second phase of RAP MEL’s implementation phase covering the period August 2015 to August 2016. During recent months, discussions with DFID, DoLIDAR and RAP have highlighted the need to adjust MEL’s activities, deliverables, and working model to respond to the lessons learned from the first phase of implementation (June 2014 to July 2015) and to ensure that MEL’s work remains relevant to the emerging needs of MEL’s stakeholders.

This document sets out RAP3’s approach to preventing and detecting corruption within our implementation team and partners, and tackling corruption where we encounter it in the government agencies and communities we work with. We recognise that corruption in Nepal is a serious problem and that there is no single measure to prevent and detect it across a large programme in a corrupt environment. An effective internal control environment requires the integration of a range of financial and operational controls across all processes, policies, practices and partnerships.

RAP3 assisted DOLIDAR to develop a plan to connect VDC centres that are at present not connected by road to the DRCN. This programme will use GON funding leaving development partners to concentrate on maintenance and improvement of the DRCN. Data from DTMP and Districts envisaged that 584 VDC centres yet to be connected by road network. For this, a total of 7269km new road to be constructed to link all the VDC centres. In current fiscal year 2071/72 (2014/15), MoFALD/DoLIDAR has a provision of an additional budget of NPR 450 million for this purpose. Initially, DoLIDAR planned to provide budget with road name/s according to DTMP priority but later this has been differed and issued budget expenditure authority to respective DDCs with special instructions mentioning that the selection of road/s and budget allocation should be based on the DTMP priority/list to boost up the GON decentralisation policy. Accordingly the budget expenditure authority were issued to 51 DDCs (ranging from NPR 5 to 15 million).